August Jobless Rate Drops Slightly

Joshua Stewart

Updated: 1 year ago.

Georgia's unemployment rate has dropped to 8.7 percent. The Georgia Department of Labor early Thursday morning announced the new figure, which is the seasonally adjusted jobless rate for August. It is down from 8.8 percent in July. (Photo Courtesy of photologue_np via Flickr.)

The Georgia Department of Labor early Thursday morning announced the new figure, which is the seasonally adjusted jobless rate for August.

It is down from 8.8 percent in July.

State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said the main reason the rate dropped is that Georgia had a significant reduction in layoffs -- the fewest since September 2007. Also, the state saw a small increase in the number of jobs.

Butler said the private sector didn’t grow as much as usual, but he remains optimistic.

“I believe that the private sector has stabilized and we’re going to continue to see slow but steady growth,” he said. “However, I would like to caution that I think the reason we’re seeing a little bit of slowdown right now -- at least what we’re hearing from businesses -- is the fact that we’re still waiting to see what’s going on in Washington with the healthcare bill.”

Butler said much of the job growth last month came from educators returning for the school year.